Alcoholism in Australia - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Alcohol abuse also increases the risk of cancer, which includes cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus, breast cancer and bowel cancer. In a study focused on South Australia, and the health effects of alcohol, it was reported that: during 2004/05, over 6 750 hospitalizations in South Australia were attributable to alcohol and in 2005, 280 deaths in South Australia were attributable to alcohol.  Because alcohol affects judgment, coordination and other mental functions, the response time for decisions is severely diminished, causing in turn, other problems such as driving impairment. Further, there is an increase in a variety of mental health problems associated with alcoholism, and there is also an association or correlation between alcohol abuse and the abuse of other narcotics. Again, because of the lowered capacity for judgment, someone under the influence of alcohol will make the type or form of evaluations that are far from being in the best interest of the individual in question. For women who are pregnant, there are significant health risks associated with alcohol abuse, especially if the alcohol is used or abused in the first trimester of the pregnancy. Alcohol abuse can cause significant damage to a pregnant woman's fetus and in the more extreme cases, 'fetal alcohol syndrome' might result. Very often children who are born with FAS have physical deformities that very often affect the face of the individual, and likewise, too, this often results in a diminished mental capacity and even retardation. [National Preventative Health Taskforce (NPHT) 2008, p.12]. Alcoholism is a world-wide problem, and Australia is no exception. In 2008, the Government of Australia took some forward steps toward curbing the growth of dangerous rates of alcohol consumption. Australia introduced an “excise tax” on pre-mixed spirits, so that it would be in line with the same tax rate for non-mixed spirits. The intention of this measure, was to improve “public health outcomes” in Australia.[Doran and Shakeshaft, 2008, p. 701] What is important about this government measure, is that it is a very public acknowledgment that alcoholism or 'alcohol dependency' is a problem in Australia. Indeed, some of the statistics concerning alcohol consumptio ...Download file to see next pages Read More